Sleepers (TV series)

Infobox Television
show_name = Sleepers


caption = Acorn Media DVD cover
aka =
genre = Drama
creator =
writer = nowrap beginJohn Flanagan·wrap Andrew McCullochnowrap end
director = Geoffrey Sax
creat_director =
developer =
presenter =
starring = nowrap beginNigel Havers·wrap Warren Clarke·wrap Michael Gough·wrap David Caldernowrap end
voices =
narrated =
theme_composer =
opentheme =
endtheme =
composer = nowrap beginDavid Dundas·wrap Rick Wentworthnowrap end
country = UK
language = English
num_seasons =
num_episodes = 4
list_episodes =
distributor = BBC Worldwide
executive_producer = nowrap beginVerity Lambert·wrap Michael Wearingnowrap end
co_exec =
producer = Caroline Gold
sup_producer =
asst_producer =
cons_producer =
co-producer =
editor = Paul Tothill
story_editor =
location =
cinematography = Remi Adefarasin
camera_setup =
runtime = 60 minutes
channel = BBC One
picture_format =
audio_format =
first_run =
first_aired = April 10
last_aired = nowrap beginMay 1, 1991nowrap end
preceded_by =
followed_by =
related =
website =
prod_website =
imdb_id = 0101200
tv_com_id =

"Sleepers" is a 1991 comedy-drama produced by Cinema Verity for the BBC, set around the period of Glasnost in the Soviet Union.

Plot summary

In post-Glasnost Moscow, the KGB stumbles across an old disused training facility recreating 1960's London. They soon discover that the purpose of the facility was to integrate KGB agents into British society. Two of these agents are still missing 25 years later. In fact, the two agents have become integrated into British society so well they themselves have forgotten the reason they were sent there in the first place. They are as British as the British as far as they are concerned. One of them, Jeremy Coward, has become a successful city financier with a string of girlfriends, a posh car and a studio apartment. The other, Albert Robinson, is a hard-working moderate trade unionist working in the north of England, with a wife, children and a council house.

One day, Albert's daughter hears a strange noise coming from the attic. Looking for his daughter, Albert also hears the noise and discovers an old radio transmitter. He recognises the Russian radio transmission and suddenly realises that his old bosses are out to find him! Scared for his family, he goes away for a few days and manages to relocate his associate.

The KGB also begin to take action to retrieve the two rogue agents and send Major Grishina - a darkly attractive female officer - to the UK in order to bring them back to the Soviet Union. Her arrival alerts the CIA and MI5 that something big must be happening for the KGB to send such a high-ranking officer to Britain. Her arrival also shakes up the Soviet representatives in the UK. The chief KGB officer in the UK is more decadent than the locals and is originally discovered watching an American baseball game on the TV (he is wearing a Boston Red Sox t-shirt, and the game shown clearly shows Joe Carter of the Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre (then known as Skydome) in Toronto).

As this is a comedy, the "secret agents" are portrayed with a certain amount of stereotyping. The American CIA agents are portrayed as "gung-ho" Yanks. The MI5 agents are "university-types" but as this is Britain almost everything they use has to be either small, cost-effective, or barely working at all. As can be seen in the drama, the Americans run around in big Cadillacs and have a large plush office. The British MI5 run around in a Mini Metro and have an office little bigger than a closet where the heating barely works or works too well. The KGB in the UK use business-like offices and run around in Volvos.

The action unfolds as the KGB pursue the two errant agents across England - hotly pursued by the CIA and MI5.

There is a particularly amusing side plot, when the KGB resident, reluctantly investigating the "secret agents", comes across some KGB surveillance footage of the two men in the crowd at the controversial 1966 World Cup match between England and West Germany. The footage actually shows clearly the result (not disclosed, needless to say) of Geoff Hurst's disputed second shot for goal. The KGB resident contacts the BBC Head of Sports to do a deal on the footage, and their meeting is witnessed by MI5, thus reinforcing their stereotypical view of political bias at the BBC.

Cast

* Nigel Havers — "Jeremy Coward" / "Sergei Rublev"
* Warren Clarke — "Albert Robinson" / "Vladimir Zelenski"
* Michael Gough — "Andrei Zorin"
* David Calder — "Victor Chekhov"
* Joanna Kanska — "Nina Grishna"
* Denica Fairman — "Georgina"
* Richard Huw — "Igor Kostov"
* Christopher Rozycki — "Oleg Petrovski"